Burma's two largest ethnic parties have said that they will claim their seats in Parliament when it is formed sometime next year, despite their allegations of cheating by the junta-backed party that has been declared the winner of the country's Nov. 7 election.

Burma's Union Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday announced the final results for the Nov. 7 general election, with the regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) winning 883 of the 1,154 parliamentary seats, or 76.5 percent, according to a Chinese newspaper.

Two Burmese government ministers have reportedly met in a Karen State monastery with the influential monk Ashin Pyinnyar Thar Mi and urged him to try and persuade the Phalon Sawaw Democratic Party (PSDP) to co-operate with the regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The Democracy and Peace Party (DPP) says it has called on the Union Election Commission (EC) to dissolve the junta's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and not to recognize its candidates who won seats in parliament.

“'Winning in the evening; losing in the morning; The lion seized all the seats!' That's what the children are singing in the street around here,” said Dr. Saw Naing, an independent candidate who ran in the general election on Sunday for a Lower House seat representing South Okkalapa Township in Rangoon.

MANDALAY—"I did not vote for the 'Lion,'" the symbol of the junta's proxy political party, she whispered to her friends. Then Tin Thein looked around the poll station to see if anyone was watching her as she put her ballots in the white plastic box. She felt as if she had completed her mission.

RANGOON — Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will help investigate charges of election fraud if and when she is released from house arrest this week, a close political colleague said Wednesday.

UNITED NATIONS — On May 30, 2003, the Depayin Massacre in Burma left at least 70 people dead. A failed attempt to assassinate opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the attack was carried out by the pro-junta political militia, the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA).

Twenty candidates of three of the parties that contested Burma's general election have launched a nationwide action calling for a new vote, on the grounds that Sunday's polling was neither free nor fair.